St. Johnsbury
people had the opportunity to hear on Monday evening a clear statement of the
belief of Christian Scientists by a member of the official board of lecturers.
The hall was fairly well filled with an appreciative audience. In the audience
were many from the surrounding towns, some driving clear from Lisbon to hear
the lecturer.

The lecturer was introduced by
George P. Moore. In introducing the speaker Mr. Moore said that for several
years there had existed in St. Johnsbury a small band
of Christian Scientists and that less than a year ago a branch was organized
here of the Mother Church of Boston. "The members of the local church, for
whom I speak, have invited you here tonight to hear one of the board of
official lecturers and I take great pleasure in introducing Rev. William P.
McKenzie of Boston."

Mr. McKenzie spoke for over an
hour in a calm and convincing manner and held the closest attention of his
audience until the close. Following is his address in full:

Christian Science in operation
means the restoration of the efficiency of early Christianity whereby the sick
and sinful were healed. It re-establishes what were originally the "signs
following them that believe." People say these "signs" were
miraculous, and that the day of miracles is past; that they were for a certain
age to illustrate and establish Christianity. But we ask whether on that view
they are not more needed now? Is there not more confusion regarding doctrine,
and a thousand new and more elaborate diseases than were then known, and
moreover, an immensely increased population of prodigals dwelling far away from
the Father? If miracles were needed in early days to impress Christianity upon
the minds of men how vastly greater the need to-day. From certain view points it would seem as if the words of Isaiah were
fulfilled: "Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant
of the earth. And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth
from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out
of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for * * * the foundations
of the earth do shake." But through Science we see that the miracles, so
called, were but natural manifestations of spiritual power. These normal
demonstrations of the quality of Love and its power, are being wrought to-day
so that the proof is in every place. Every disease known to doctors, and many
undiagnosed by the most skillful, have been healed. One year of "The
Christian Science Journal" will furnish cases enough to convince any
honest seeker and show how every condition of need has been helped.

The Needs of Men

Can it be said that there is a
man who is immune regarding care? Should a man mount his horse to ride long and
far, and flee from care, he will find, as an ancient poet said, that black care
mounts behind the horseman. How few there are who do not know of failure in
business, or fears regarding their future if they are successful! How few are
not touched by the invalidism or sorrow of some one
dear to them! Think of the great army of the careworn ceaselessly busy in the
struggle for existence. What heart sinkings they
have, and what anxieties, amid competition which has become savage. The hopes
and sweet dreams of youth are gone, the striving for food and clothing has made
sordid the life. How "the old hag Care" drives even Christians who
are fearsome about truth and righteousness in the land, or in trepidation
regarding the success of their multitudinous causes. They do not feel that
there is but one Cause, and that the kingdom of heaven must come and be
manifest on earth.

Then there are those struggling
with the more interior problem of doubt. They find no clue to the mystery of
existence. They are tormented by vague unrest, and with the attempt at doing
any particular work there comes a sense of the futility of all effort. For such
souls to escape from the complex torments of doubt, and have the simple peace
of the Spirit means much. Their fighting with the mist is a useless beating of
the air, but by an understanding of truth they rise above the region of cloud.
The message of love takes human anxiety by showing the truth of God's care.
Jesus argued from God's care of the sparrow up to His care of His child. Paul
argued down from the gift of the Life-giver to the free giving of all things.

What is man in the swing of
worlds and the solemnities of infinite space? Yet there is a warfare in our
souls with interest to angels. In the discipline of life we can become sure of
the sleepless caring of Love and we learn that the angelic messengers
"watch and rejoice over every movement of purity and tenderness," — and
that man himself whose body to the eye of sense is so infinitesimal an atom
amid the worlds, has his value in heavenly places, and should find his place as
the child of God. How necessary then it becomes to have some method of living
which will give scientific results. The dire need of humanly proclaims the
power, beauty and excellence of the Christian Science which supplies the need.

Christian Science as Religion

Various descriptions have been
given of Christian Science, by way of definition. A physician who felt no
sympathy with it, but was honest in thought, said in view of results,
"Christian Science is not doctoring, it is Christianity." A clergyman
gave his verdict thus, "It is the second coming of Christ, the coming of
Truth like a light, shining from one part of the horizon to the other, even as
Jesus predicted." "It is practical common sense," said a
business man; and another when it was being spoken of as a new religion, said,
"It is not a religion merely, it is religion itself."

The Science of Christian Living

Let us transpose the terms, and
so make evident the practical side of this Science. Its aim as applied to human
needs is to reproduce in all men that life which the Founder of Christianity
lived for their example. This is what institutional Christianity has been
endeavoring to do; but if we note that the important work of healing as it was
done by the Master and his disciples has not been attempted since the early
centuries we may say that this lack of "demonstration and power"
indicates a lack of scientific method.

In the history of Christendom we
find that each sect or denomination has stood for and
emphasized some one prominent thought. Men have contended and become separated
however regarding their tenaciously held opinions, instead of each contributing
to his brother the good he had gained. Elaborate theologies have been
aggregated from the thoughts of men about God, and in the strife of human
opinion regarding these other human opinions, the true sense of God has been
lost. But in this scientific age men are learning to ask for results rather
than theories, and it is not strange that they should welcome the revival in
Christian Science of the primitive Christianity which afforded proof of the
power of a present God by healing the sick and curing the sinful, in the way
Christ Jesus bade his followers do.

It Has One Principle

The first step in a science is
the careful observation of facts, and their verification; then comes the
correct thinking which correlates the facts and gains an exact knowledge of
laws. The final step is to rise to the discovery and apprehension of the
eternal Principle which is behind these facts and laws, and accounts for them.

Those early star-gazers the
Egyptians had a collection of observed facts regarding the heavenly bodies. To
correlate these was the next step. Ptolemy did this in a geocentric system.
Then with enlarged views came the formulation of the heliocentric system by
Copernicus and others. These generalizations had to be formulated as laws,
which was done by Kepler; and finally the principle
or force accounting for these laws had to be brought out, and Newton posited
this as universal gravitation. To-day astronomers in different lands, who may
not understand each other in language, make calculations that exactly agree, —
because they are calculating from one understood and accepted principle.

The methods of Christian
Scientists in their world-wide work are in agreement, like those of
astronomers, because one principle is recognized, and that divine Principle is
God. If this agreement does not appear in some cases, it is because, like
children at school, some learners are still making mistakes in their figuring —
making self rather than God the centre of their thought.

It Controverts Dualism

We have to admit that the popular
philosophy in Christendom is dualistic. Two powers are recognized in popular
thought by the civilized, just as frankly as the Indians recognize an evil
spirit its well as a good. This came to be done by Christian philosophers since
they found it impossible to prove the unity of Good. Being unable to
"Destroy the works of the devil" in Jesus' way, and by removing the
manifestation of evil to nullify its claim to power, Christendom has accepted
evil as a fact, an actuality of the universe. And, in order to be consistent,
has carried the belief in evil to eternal terms in various theories about
everlasting punishment. What about these theories of the eternity of sin and
the perpetuity of sufferings, the eternity of mercilessness and the immortality
of agony — is it not clear that the principle of harmony, order, law, cannot
contemplate eternal disorder? We do not tolerate the engineer whose bridges
disobey mathematical requirements, nor the musician who agonizes the ear with
discords. We expect obedience to law and exact thought in engineering work; yet
it may be so that the several engineers when at school made many blunders in
their figuring. To say that they shall inevitably make such mistakes and
imperil the lives of other men by inexactness and disregard of principle would
seem inappropriate. Why then in viewing a future longer than one man's life on
earth condemn men to perpetual mistake and suffering. In advancing his doctrine
it is interesting to note that Jesus struck a new key-note by proclaiming only
the good in his inaugural address at Nazareth. He read from the prophet about
the blessing which should come with the advent of the Messiah, but, ere reading
the words which followed, which were about "The day of vengeance of our
God," we are told that he closed the book. He omitted from the record the
crude conception of God after human analogy as vengeful.

It may be said here that no
clergyman now preaches eternal punishment as used to be done. If so it is
admitted that evil is not eternal, and therefore not real now, since only what
is eternal can have reality. Why then give place and power to the unreal? It is
a distinctive feature of Christian Science that it does not have a place for
evil. Every system of philosophy has a place for evil, and accounts for the
power of evil, but so large is the Good in this system that evil is without a
local habitation or a name. It is not simply ignored; it is displaced.

At the house of a Christian
Science practitioner some visitors who were investigators asked the waiting
maid how her mistress diagnosed disease. "How does she locate it,"
they asked. In reply they had this: "She lets the doctors locate disease;
her work is to dislocate it." Suppose the case of a man both sick and a
sinner; here very evidently are two evils, moral and physical, made manifest.
The doctor attends him for his sickness, and comes with an absolutely certain
and satisfied sense of the reality of sickness. The clergyman who visits him
has just as certain and settled a conviction regarding the reality of sin. In
the philosophy of both these thinkers evil is a power which sometimes may be
greater than the power of good. Suppose that case to be healed by a Christian
Scientist; health is made manifest and a Christ-like character made manifest as
well. The sickness and the sin have been displaced, and health and holiness
occupy the ground. In that one particular case it has been possible to overcome
evil with good. When evil is overcome then good holds possession and that which
is present, and the only presence, is Good.

It is a distinctive feature of
Christian Science that its postulate, rather should one say its axiom, is this:
that by proving the unreality of sin, disease and death, you demonstrate the Allness of Good. When the sinner becomes a righteous man,
and the sick perfectly well, in each case dualism is shown to be a human theory
and the glory of one God is revealed in the destruction of both the theory and
its supporting evidence. When Good becomes the only presence, and we remember
that Good or God is Love, it is easy to see how this present certainty of
Divine Love destroys wholly in consciousness both memory of past distresses,
and fear of future disasters, and proves to the individual that God, Good, is
his life, and all that really exists.

What About Failures?

Good is never transformed into
evil. The world's belief is that, food for instance, may both preserve life and
destroy — medicine both heal and poison. But Good is one; if treatment in
Christian Science seem to fail, it is because there was not in understanding
sufficient of the one Good to nullify the beliefs in evil which wrought death.

Sometimes an Indian has been
taken ill at a military post and been taken care of by a skillful surgeon and
yet under that treatment has died. His friends on the reservation do not look
upon this occurrence calmly. They are satisfied that their brother was
murdered. Had he been carried out his lodge and died under the singing and
magic of the medicine man that would have been considered regular and right.
Every advance in science is at first misunderstood and every failure to produce
the result aimed at is considered a crime, but we know that a failure does not
disprove a principle. If that were so there are enough of failures in any
child's school to abrogate all the principles of mathematics. A single success
is enough to prove the operation of a principle which a thousand failures
cannot disprove. But if the question be one between scientific methods, and
there be found a system which proves successful in a large percentage of cases
where another system has already failed, it is not just to condemn the new
system for its failure any more than the old.

Suppose the case of a large
number of hospitals in the city and a new one to be established which was to
take care of the cases which none of the others could cure; would it be fair to
say nothing regarding the cases of failure in all the other hospitals and to
condemn as murder the death of a patient in this hospital which was trying to
do what the others confessed themselves unable to do?

If in the desert a man was dying
of thirst and a friend brought him a little water, not enough we will say to
save his life and yet all that he had to give, would it be fair to say that it
was the water given that caused his death? Or, suppose that there were enough
of water to satisfy his thirst and that he in his wild ravings spilt it on the
sand whence it could not be gathered up, would it be fair to accuse the friend
of evil motive because he brought to him the water which was not received?
Those who are dealing with the sick have either love or its opposite in its
consciousness. Love heals; hate kills. If there be a gust of malice blowing
bitterly against those who by the Science of Christianity are seeking to heal a
patient, may that not be the real danger menacing the flickering life of the
sick man?

The majority of those healed in
Christian Science are such as have gone the round of medical treatment first.
They are often those given up to die by doctors. The normal action of good is
shown by their recovery. Is it not then fallacious in every way to say that in
any case Christian Science can cause the opposite of Good?

The Opposition of Material Sense

Material sense always brings
limitation. It deceitfully promises joy from the titillation of the senses, but
soon the one deceived must increase the dose. Then he finds that the greater
the dose the less the satisfaction, and the stronger his belief in the senses
the greater his bondage to them. At last it may happen that sensuality will
seem to have obliterated every life-evidence of spiritual sense; and may
enclose a man in a darkness like that Egyptian blackness which could be felt.
Or, take the matter of giving from the basis of material possessions. When we
divide material goods there is a lessening with every division. So Andrew
thought when he calculated how far five loaves would go towards feeding five
thousand people. Should we try to benefit mankind in this way a vast fortune
would come to almost nothing as far as an individual man would be concerned.
The spiritual is the opposite of this. The new joy to which a man awakes with
reversal of material sense abides with him and cannot be lost. Joy gained on a
true basis grows perpetually, and "giving doth not impoverish."
Material possessions may be like the clothes which make no part of the man, but
spiritual understanding is the character. Spiritual understanding is the real
man who has immortality.

In Christian Science the attack
is made at the root of the error, at the belief of life originating apart from
God, and abiding in matter, and the healing of sin is considered the important
thing. Jesus spoke about the denseness and grossness of the people to whom he
came, which prevented them from taking the first step towards healing. He said
that sensuality dulled and stupefied them lest they should "be converted
and I should heal them." That which was consequent upon conversion was
healing, but material belief prevented conversion.

The waning belief in drugs has
been one of the phases of opposition to the spiritual. When people saw the
works of Jesus we are told that "they glorified God." The followers
of Jesus are exhorted to "let their light so shine before men that they
who see the good works may glorify the heavenly Father." The use of a drug
in attempted healing of the sick cannot be said to glorify God, for such a
reliance practically rules God out of the question. If God is to be glorified
all Scientists, all Christians should through Mind heal the sick, and give
those signs of the solved problem of life mentioned in Mark's final chapter.
Spiritual sense will bring the result.

The Pretences of Hypnotism and Mesmerism

There is only one true method of
healing, and that is healing through the Christ-truth. Hypnotism professes to
heal, by the influences of "educated will-power." It is admitted that
this will-power very frequently does work in evil directions. Mesmerists have
caused their victims to appear intoxicated when no strong drink had been given
them. Hypnotists have suggested crimes which their patients carried out in dumb
show, but with as great fear as if actual crime had been perpetrated; and yet,
by both these methods men profess to heal the drunkard and reform the criminal.
The strifes, altercations, competitions, rivalries
and wars in the world are due to conflicting wills. Nothing could be more
certain than that will-power claims to do both evil and good. And how, if I put
myself under the influence of the will-power of another, how do I know whether
the operation will be evil or good? I have no assurance that undesirable
elements from the human mind influence may not be impressed upon me. Only in
Christian Science can one have certainty, because the healing work is done by
impressing upon the patient's mind the eternal Truth regarding man's being and
origin which is found in the Bible and elucidated in Science and Health. This
book is the textbook which gives the method and morale of Christian Science.
There is no word in that text book contrary to the highest wisdom and strictest
morality; consequently, no evil can be given by the healer who keeps to what is
taught, and the patient who studies the book may be the judge of this. This
book says "Science cannot produce both disorder and order;" and thus
arraigns the methods which profess to produce both crime and reform, as
unscientific.

Should there be healing done to
appearance by means of hypnotic and mesmeric methods it is really the error of
the will-power of another displacing the patient's error of fear, and the
stronger error remains in possession of the field. It is an argument of
material sense that Satan casts out Satan. Does one evil cast out another? We
say that pain is cured by peace, but material sense uses morphine to cast out
pain; then will provide strychnine or cocaine to cure the morphine habit, or
prescribe drunkenness as the last resort for the victim. In the same analogy
revenge seeks to cure hate by murder. It professes to do good to the revenger through evil done to the victim. Then it produces
remorse whose pain bites deeper than the hatred which led to the crime. Is it a
safe thing to use a narcotic or hypnotic to cure a pain when that so called
remedy may destroy the moral life of the patient? Carrying this to higher terms
is it safe to use the mental influence of hypnotism to cure vice when the same
influence may cause a crime?

Some authorities may be quoted.
Dr. Frank J. Lutz, ex-President of the State Board of Health of Missouri states
that hypnotism is the cause of many people becoming insane; and further says
that the effect of hypnotism upon the nerves of the person submitting to a
hypnotic test is a great deal worse than the result of incessant cigarette
smoking and even of the drinking of absinthe.

Dr. Edward C. Spitzka,
a famous specialist in Neurology, says: "No person can he placed in a
hypnotic condition without some harm being done him toward wrecking the nerves
and shattering his mental strength."

Dr. Gottlieb Sternberg, of the
Eastern District Hospital, Brooklyn, says: "It is certainly time that some
decisive action be taken by the law-makers to put an effective stop to the
indiscriminate use of hypnotism. It is positively alarming to pick up a
newspaper nowadays and see the abuses to which this little-understood science
is being put. I know of cases where the continued use of hypnotism upon a
person has so weakened the brain and the will-power that the subjects had
become little better than idiots, with no more stability than water. I will
admit, however, that I have known of only a few such unfortunate cases; but it
must be said, on the other hand, that I have never seen any person hypnotized
even once who did not show its weakening effects in some degree. I am convinced
that if the bare truth could be generally learned the startling fact would come
to light that the insane asylums contain a great number of inmates who would
never have reached their portals had they not been started on the route by the
use of hypnotism."

The Reversals of Science

A lie is simply the reversal of
truth. It is not a thing in itself but the inverted sense of what is. Let a lie
come between two friends; the one who believes it becomes unfriendly to his
friend, whose love may continue the same as ever. The one who believes the lie
may misinterpret all the manifestations of that love which remains ever the
same, but he is, by believing the lie, depriving himself of both truth and
love. Such a case of misunderstanding may start a feud; families may be
involved; there may be the cross-countering of murder, and after the tribal war
has buried its victims, it may be found out that the beginning of the whole
trouble was a little, needless and silly lie. We remember Othello and how the
lying suggestions of Iago acted upon his mind like
poison until the purity of Desdemona became reversed to his thought, — truth
and love inverted, and sorrow and death the outcome. Now when the lie is
reversed for the person he perceives the truth and also perceives that it was
always the same; the lie did not diminish it or change it, only his sense of
the truth was perverted. When the misunderstanding is over between two friends
they know that their friendship abides.

Like Truth we conceive the
creation of God as eternal. Being good and perfect and the outcome of Spirit,
it is to be seen by spiritual sense. All that the materialized view can do is
to invert the spiritual. It does not destroy Spirit, which continues to be the
real; but it puts in place of Spirit its own concept of matter as real, and
believes, therefore, the concomitants of matter, sin, discord, disease and
death, to be real also. For examine, the thief believes that real substance is
matter and searching for happiness steals gold, or silver, or jewels.
Immediately thereupon he becomes a fugitive. He has stolen happiness from
himself. So likewise the pleasure-seeking man indulges in debauchery to find
the consequent diseases bring him misery. Envy and jealousy suggest to a man
that he can find happiness in the murder of another, believing that the flesh
and blood are the reality of the man and they can thus be destroyed. If the
thief knew that honesty and truth were substantial, if the libertine knew that
purity opened the eyes to the eternal Good, and the man of malice was aware
that only love was everlasting, the true substance would be evident to each
one. These misconceptions or inversions of truth which show themselves as the
works of the flesh have to be purged away through suffering, that is, they
become self-destroyed. They are like the wrong figurings
in a mathematical problem which disobey the rules and cause the calculator to
wander farther and farther from what is correct. But, suppose the worker on a
mathematical problem after a long effort finds the true answer, he sees at once
that it always was there. Just as truth abides and is revealed when the lie is
reversed, so the correct mathematical problem awaits its revelation when the
mistakes are corrected. We hold this principle to be true regarding creation.
What the senses tell us with regard to matter and the sad and disappointing
life of man on the earth are known to be lies, and we understand that the true
creation is revealed by inversion of this opposite.

It is sometimes said "How
foolish it is to deny error when anybody can see that the error exists."
This is said in objection to the Christian Science method of denying that evil
is a reality. Supposing the objector had a friend who owed him four and three
dollars, and in making up the sum thereof wrote it down six dollars. He would
be very prompt to deny that error. But his friend would reply, "Can't you
see that that is the figure six? What is the use of denying what is
evident?" The objector would at once reply, "It ought not to be
evident, it ought to be displaced by the correct figure, which is 7." Now,
if a man find his powers and abilities diminished through sickness so that he
is, we will say, only six-sevenths of a man, is it not legitimate to deny that
error of limitation and to assert that the whole man, — that is the healthy
man, should be manifested? We are called upon to deny all incorrect figures and
every limitation of the powers and liberty of a man.

What Is Substance

In the world a wealthy man is
termed "a man of substance." Yet he who holds to such substance in
the end has nothing. A multi-millionaire's daughter is said to have declared
that rather than the wealth of her father would she have had the world's
tribute of love to him, and regret in the hearts of men because of his death.
This financial spider had millions enwebbed, yet had
nothing if he did not have love. One who had given away fortunes for love's
sake and died poor, yet had love, really possessed all the wealth given away.
To the materialist money is substance; so he works for wages and trusts to his
earnings for his living. The more material one is the more is his trust in
riches, be he rich or poor. This love of money is the
root of every kind of evil. "All that a man hath will he give for his
life," so if money be regarded as life-giving we find that honor, truth,
honesty, friendship, righteousness, will be sacrificed for the dollar. Such an
idolater lives amid envy, avarice, jealousy, contention, fraud, deception,
violence.

The Christian Scientist is the
reverse of such a man. To him Love is substance. He works in the service of
Love and payment for his work is the gratefully received reward of Love. Having
food and raiment (and the wealthiest has not more) he is content. His trust is
in inexhaustible Love so he has no worry, no selfish planning for an unknown
future. The future is not dark with fear for "Love never faileth." He finds that Love is life-giving, and that
for Love he has to sacrifice only what is non-lovelike
such as bitterness, fear, anger, envy, hate. He sees the beauty, not the fear,
of the principle which says, "Whatsoever a man soweth
that shall he also reap." Therefore he sows love "beside all
waters," that is, wherever seed has any possible chance of growing; and he
knows assuredly that he will reap love and life.

Jesus taught that Love was
Substance. When the woman broke the jar of alabaster to anoint him, he saw such
love manifested that he declared, "Wheresoever
this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she
hath done shall be spoken for a memorial of her." The whole world was to
become able to estimate and praise such love because love is real. But did
Judas see and value that love? The record says that he could not see it, but
that what he did see was a waste of money, for to him money was substance. To
gain what he considered real he sold Christ. The teaching and love of the
Master he could not value since the love of money had blinded his eyes. At
opposite poles of life are the Christ-ideal and the Judas-ideal.

The Value of Truth

The value of Christian Science
must be recognized by the world. By large fees given to doctor or lawyer people
express their confidence. When Science does for them what all doctors have
failed to do they show gratitude if the Christ-spirit be there. But if that
"Son of Peace" be not there they must not be allowed to preserve the
mendicant spirit and get without giving in return; they must be caused to
estimate the value of the help given and manifest their recognition of value in
the way they express it to others. To undervalue truth is to take it second;
then Mammon is the god.

It is possible to see why a fee
of three hundred dollars was required at the Massachusetts Metaphysical
College. This demand was made under Truth's guidance by the teacher for a two
weeks' course. No such fee was ever asked by university or college for so short
a course. Only those who could rightly estimate values would be ready to pay
it. They who did receive the teaching felt the fee to be as nothing to the
value received. Those objecting were not ready for the truth given for they
could not appreciate its value. The mass of mankind are mendicants at heart
when it comes to religion. It is to restore lost manhood and evidence the sweep
of honesty that Scientists are to handle the money-question for others as well
as for themselves. There is a natural desire to be a benefactor in the world's
sense, saying to the sick, "I will give you what you want and work for
your healing." The sick are thus made comfortable in dishonesty and do not
put a value upon truth. In correcting this error Scientists have to be
unmindful of the sneers which term them lovers of money, penurious or
avaricious. They must cause the patient to set a value upon truth by making
some kind of a sacrifice for it. If he learn honesty he will say in the end
that what he received was priceless. Let us see that every benefit is the gift
of God. Healing is not the gift of the healer. He only helps the patient into
the right mental condition so that he can receive God's gift. He may have to sacrifice
time, to give love, to manifest forbearance, to teach from his own dear-bought
experience. In any line of world-work honesty requires the teacher to be
rewarded in proportion to the preciousness of his teaching. If a patient has no
will to be honest with the bringer of the gift, how can he receive the gift of
God and keep it? Such a one may be healed in body of some present trouble but
his evil mind goes on producing disease.

If there be honesty at the outset
there is co-operation. The patient who is making a sacrifice is delighted to
see improvement and gladly acknowledges the benefit. He thus opens his heart to
receive more blessings. One who withholds the gift, sullenly conceals the
benefit received lest he be shown to have a good reason for giving. When a man
says "Heal me first, then I will pay," he is really offering a wager
that the healer cannot benefit him. His mental attitude is one of resistance
lest he be called upon to pay the forfeit. One who values the truth for its own
sake and lovingly recognizes the sacrifice of his brother who is working for
his healing, opens his heart to the beneficent influences of Love. The
mendicant rejoices in iniquity and taketh account of
evil symptoms; the honest man "rejoices in the truth," and Truth
heals him.

No Reply to Accusations

It is oftentimes a mistake to
answer back to an accusation. A wise man once said that if mud is flung upon
your cloak, you should let it dry, and then it will fall off; whereas, to be
over eager in getting rid of it may smear the garment. There is a story told of
a man who was called a donkey by some opponent, and who came before an audience
and attempted seriously and elaborately to prove that he was not; and the
people said: "So then he is a donkey after all." It is impossible to
argue with ignorance. If a man for instance opens his Bible and reads about
four angels "standing on the four corners of the earth" and insists
that the earth is square because four corners have thus been mentioned, and if
he will listen to no argument it would be waste of words to attempt to convince
him. The best answer to false accusation is true, honest and upright character.
False accusation is like a changeable wind which may blow dust from any
direction, whereas character is like a stone-built tower upon which the blown
dust makes no impression.

There is this to be said of
accusers that they are really accusing themselves, if they do not in their
lives and labors illustrate a better ideal than is
held by those whom they condemn. The unprofitable servant is spoken to by his
lord, who says: "Out of thine own mouth will I
judge thee;" so it might very well be said to those whose objections to
Christian Science are cruel and condemnatory, "Thou knewest
the ideal Christian way, thou knewest the command of
Jesus to follow his example in all things, and hast condemned thy brother for
healing the sick, visiting the captive and unfettering the sinful. How much
better hast thou done thyself?" It is quite likely that under the
searching questioning of truth the "one talent man," who is usually
the critic, will find himself speechless.

If attacks are received without
resentment, and patience is allowed to have her perfect work the result is
good. One example of this will suffice. A prominent journalist produced in his
paper a critical and condemnatory diatribe against Christian Science. The
animus of the article made it evident that he had not seen one gleam of that
light of love which illumines the life of every true Christian Scientist. Some
two hundred copies of this article were circulated by a lady who believed that
she was doing God service in this way. She spoke with delight of this
opportunity which she had taken to "enlighten the public regarding
Christian Science." She expected her Scientist friend to be annoyed at
this act, but this friend thanked her for what she had done and explained why.
The article had been so elaborate in its attack that any reader of it would be
led to wonder if that which was attacked were not worth investigating; and it
so turned out that half a hundred copies of the text-book, were bought by
seekers after Truth as a result of that attack.

The Christian Scientist is one
who CONSENTS TO WHOLESOME WORDS "even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and to the doctrine which is according to godliness." He is unwilling to
become involved in the "perverse disputings of
men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth." He recognizes that the
world's wisdom, wherefrom comes poisonous envy and bitter strife, is
"earthly, sensual, devilish." It is fair to ask whether it is not a
sufficient test of character to judge a man by that wisdom that is from above
which is "first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated,
full of mercy and good fruits, WITHOUT WRANGLING, and without hypocrisy."
If there be those who preach Christ of contention we may rejoice as Paul did
that "whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached." But, we
will also say with Paul that "if any man seem to be contentious, we have
no such custom, neither the churches of God."

Discovery of Christian Science

When the last hope of recovery
from an accident had been given up by both her doctor and her minister, a woman
called for the Bible and read the story of healing that Matthew records in his
ninth chapter. The question at once came to her mind, Why is not this
beneficent power available to-day? Then came the realization that the power of
Good must be omnipresent, that God is Love; and she arose healed. This woman
was the Reverend Mary Baker Eddy, now known to the world as the Discover and
Founder of Christian Science. This experience of the beneficent action of the
divine Mind caused her to begin those investigations whereof "Science and
Health" and her other writings tell. The facts of healing were recorded in
the Scriptures, but they had been looked upon so long as unrelated happenings
of a miraculous departure. After three years of study, and after six years more
of experience and proof of the divine Principle involved in healing, it was
possible to give to the world the text-book of the Science which was
appropriately termed Christian. Those who studied this book in connection with
the Bible found themselves able to heal the sick, and cast evils out of
themselves and others. Thus began what has already become a world-wide
movement, healthward, truthward,
Godward.

The fact that students of the
text-book of Christian Science became able to heal the sick, and so prove the
Principle, should be sufficient answer to the accusation that Christian
Scientists are merely following a person. The mere hero-worshipper may be far
from heroic; he may admire the good but do it not. It is easier to make an idol
of some great man than to imitate his excellence. But in Christian Science
where all depends upon demonstration there cannot be hero worship; there must
be following in the way pointed out through the toil, the self-sacrifice and
the wonderful love for humanity evidenced by the Shower of the way. But at the
same time if the tens of thousands of sick healed by virtue of the Principle
thus revealed were not grateful, if they did not love the Revealer, man would
be on a lower plane than the brute creation. But through healing they have
learned that true nature of man, humane and Christlike,
and therefore express gratitude and pure love, as naturally as a flower blooms
in beauty and sends out fragrance. The excellence of this love shown to the
Leader is that its quality is like a light and all mankind share in the benefit
of it.

A Needless Objection

Objection is sometimes made to
the author of the Christian Science text-book that she does not personally take
patients. This is supposed to indicate a lack of love on her part. Let us seek
for an analogy in the world. The General of an army has many things to think of
which concern the advance and success of the whole army. Suppose he were to
withdraw his attention from the questions which he alone can settle, leave his
officers and subordinates in confusion, that he might give his time to cooking
food for a squad of soldiers; it is necessary that a squad of soldiers should
be fed; it is not necessary that the General should do it with his own hands.
He really feeds them and supplies their wants by doing well the responsible
duty which is assigned to him. It is in like manner that the Leader of this
great Cause occupies the place and fulfills the duty which she alone can do.
Instead of occupying her day in meeting the demands of a few selfish invalids
or answering the arguments of individual objectors to the truth for which she
stands, she is wisely conducting the movement of a great host of healers and
expositors of truth. There is no invalid, there is no one in need, who cannot
avail himself of the services of those who are competent, and then, there is
the text-book from which the way of this truth may be learned. The Leader has
vaster work than personal healing to do. She is preparing the way for the
healing of the whole world. When there is misunderstanding of her method and
people indulge in vituperation they are sorrowed over because their mental
attitude is putting them for the time beyond the reach of the love which heals.

The Discoverer of Christian Science

In the National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, which contains a notice
of the life and work of the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, are
these words, "Many people of the thinking class are turning to this
Science and adopting it, because in it they find a solid foundation, a sure
abiding peace, the verification of the promises of Jesus and a demonstrable Christianity."
Does it seem a strange thing that the revelation of Christian Science should
come through a woman? France once was crushed with despair, her fields strewn
with dead, — hypocrisy in her church, and falsehood in her palaces, the brute
and the abominable passions of men were unrestrained and the invader found easy
triumph. A high purpose inspired Joan of Arc, and purity gave her power so that
she became the savior of her country. To-day when volcanic passions of men are
breaking out to strikes and civil war, when great cities are leprous with vice,
when men and women are longing for the liberty of the sons and daughters of
God, is it strange that holy womanhood should hear the word of God and
"proclaim liberty to the captives?"

Mrs. Eddy was religiously inclined
from her very childhood, and becoming a member of an orthodox church at twelve
years of age, was active and earnest therein, and had a large list of friends.
As a writer and lecturer she was known to the world in years long prior to the
discovery of Christian Science which is that understanding of the Divine which
enables men to have the same mind in them which was in Christ Jesus. This
knowledge also has demonstration and power; and tens of thousands in the land
now can testify to healing from sickness and to purification of thought through
Christian Science. But before she become the Discoverer of this provable and
beneficent science, she who was to be the author of its text-book,
"Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," had been influencing
public thought by her writings from the time when she was sixteen. One would
expect to find her who now is the champion of the highest liberty to have been
eager for the abolition of slavery. Her earnest work in this behalf led General
Butler to express to her his opinion in a letter, saying, "If we had many
women like yourself the war would soon be over." Previous to this in 1862
a lecture on the North and South in Waterville College, Maine, given by her,
was pronounced by Prof. Sheldon the most able lecture on the subject ever
delivered before that institution.

There are three of the Scriptural
writers whose names seem to be prominent — Moses, Isaiah and Paul. Each of them
was learned in the highest wisdom of his time. Moses added forty years of
reflection and solitary thought to the study of Egyptian learning which had
occupied him a like time. Then he was able to gain that self-obliteration which
enabled him to be fed by God, and so lead the Israel of God out of their
slavery. But more than that he was capable of making an abiding record of the
events that occurred under the divine leading. The writings of Isaiah show what
the man of affairs, of education, wealth and accomplishment, can express of
beauty and truth when he sets the unseen God first in his life. Paul stands
forth prominently as an Apostle of Christ, though once a Pharisee of the
Pharisees. He utilized all that was of value in his laboriously sought
learning, and transmuted his critical and destructive logic into the logic of
truth, whereby he upbuilt the cause he had attempted
to destroy. The author of the Christian Science text-book had the preparation
of education as these mentioned writers had, before being called to her work.
The singular purity and consecration of her life made the revelation of Good
come to her naturally. There was no catastrophe as in Paul's case. Since the
meaning of her mission dawned upon her she had labored with a devotion
unceasing and a zeal untiring for the good of humanity, in line with former
intentions, but now in accord with the understanding of Science whereby the
whole world is to be regenerated. The singleness of her purpose, the continuity
of her sense of God's presence, the simplicity of her obedience to God's will,
encourage every working Scientist to follow her example and furnish an
illustration of the unity of Good in character which is to bless all mankind.

There is a quaint story told in
the German tongue of a Holland burgomaster, who descended from the height of
his austere self-importance one day to soothe the woe of a child crying over a
broken toy. After his death when he came to heaven's gate, as the story told,
he was satisfied that the many good deeds of his life had procured an easy
entrance; but the record-keeper turned over page after page, and every one was a blank. At last in a corner of nearly the
last page was one kind act — the mending of a toy for a child; but that was
enough to procure him admittance, for even a cup of cold water given with love
for Christ's sake brings certain reward. A single brave or kindly act has been
enough to set a name in history, as for example Sidney's self-denial in passing
the water his own lips craved to the thirstier soldier on Zutphen's
field. But what if a life be filled with kindly acts? What if the record of
years has every hour designated by self-denial and tenderness and loving
rebukes that healed sin and wise counsels that helped the good of the world?
Would not such a life illustrate heaven here, and assure the world of the
certainty of God's will being done on earth as in heaven? Would not such a life
call out love, and would not men honor themselves by loving?

The Danger of Prejudice

A man who is prejudiced is one
who judges in advance of the evidence. He does not wait for the facts and found
his judgment thereon but he comes to a conclusion because of certain mental
conditions of his own. He does not view the external conditions, but from some
internal irritation or unhappiness within his own person he forms an opinion
which may be justified by no evidence. There are too many who allow prejudice
to close their eyes. They do not know whence these influences come but when
they find themselves at enmity against those who are doing only good they would
do well to question the source of the feeling; for it can only come from that
which prevents the good, and "whatsoever loveth
and maketh a lie." If a scholar gain a prejudice
against his teacher, the poisonous influence of distrust, fear, and malice,
will taint all his thought, and make him unable to come at the sense of the
teaching given. Or suppose a case of famine in India, and superstition to cause
prejudice against the Commissioner of Relief in a district, so that some
famished natives had too much fear to go to him and receive the freely offered
supply; the real hurt of prejudice would in that case be apparent. And careful
thought will show that there is similar hurt in all cases; the most noteworthy
example being the rejection by his own race and people of Christ Jesus who came
to teach the truth about God. Prejudice prevented the Jews from discerning the
Goodness incarnate, which governed the man Christ Jesus, and failing to accept
that, how could they receive the higher revelation of Good as the supreme,
incorporeal, divine Principle, governing the universe?

A Book and Its Value

To study newspapers is a
weariness to the eyes and a confusion to the mind. It is as if one were
listening to the many contradictory voices of a crowd. Magazines set forth
their discursive entertainment and deceptive elegancies which do not satisfy.
In a book we expect to find deeper thoughts. It is not easy to share riches
that are material, for to give away all is to be impoverished; but thoughts and
ideas can be disseminated and the giver and the receiver are both enriched. We
have read of the blacksmith at his forge studying from a book for the few
moments when the bellows sighed and the flame shot up, and then thinking over
the thoughts of great men while his hammer was busy on the anvil. We think of
that weaver at the loom catching ideas as he passed back and forth and glanced
at his book, then weaving these into his character, so that through him they
blessed a continent. If books can have such influences the question might
properly be asked, What books? We think of Carlyle, for instance, the thunderer against shams, one who was a prophet indeed, and
more than a prophet, in his zeal for righteousness; but we find that in his own
life he was not able to produce that righteousness of condition which we call
health. We think of his home agonies, distresses and sufferings, and we say
that he did not have and so could not give the whole solution. We think of
Emerson, that peaceful enlightener of men, who had the hint of many deep
spiritual truths and presented them vague or clear in his own way, but
generally mystically, not in the terms of Science. But then we find that in
later days he lost memory and was as a stranger among the friends that he knew.
We think of the poets; and how often they are as those showing the rainbow to a
child, and sending the little one on a chase after the pot of money which they
say is at its foot. The riches hinted at cannot be found, nor is there any poet
who by example as well as precept, has shown us how to live. The theologians
then, those deep thinkers regarding God, must be the ones who will tell us this
secret of life. But then sometimes the face of one who is eminent in such deep
thinking would make a child afraid. We could not think this, of the face of one
who said "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." The trouble in
theology is that human opinions become the subject of debate; and one man
justifying his opinions is met by another accusing him of errors, or else
excusing his own mistakes. If one could discover a single book wherein the glintings of the poet's imagination are found, but set
forth as clear light; where the aim of the theologian is realized in a provable
theology; that book would surely guide him aright.
If, moreover, there was found a right philosophy, good for all men and all
times, and a statement of the Principle according to which the sociology of
Christ may be realized, the labor question settled, wars brought to an end, and
the brotherhood of man made a fact in human experience, that would indeed be a
book worth having. When I found this book my theological library became
displaced and useless; for the things about which theologians dispute were set
forth in a demonstrable way, and where there is proof by demonstration there
can be no argument or disputing. Moreover, I found, on perusing volumes written
by poets and philosophers, that the specially marked passages therein were as hintings only of the clear sense and vistas of beauty which
were to be found in this one book. Furthermore, it was discovered that the ignorant
and those without knowledge of the world's ways, became wise and instructed
through study of this book; and able to prove the doctrine of the Christ by
such signs as the Apostles gave. Then it became evident that the book
introduces a new age.

If we turn back to an early
translation of the Bible we find a significant expression in that chapter of
Luke which tells of the mission of John to make ready the ways of the Lord and
"give knowledge of Salvation unto his people." Salvation to our ears
has a theological sound, and in popular thought means eventual escape from hell
and its eternal misery. The sense intended is lost when salvation does not
become a present blessing. Wycliffe touches the real meaning of the passage by
writing "Science of Helthe" where
"Knowledge of Salvation" is given in our version. If the "gospel
of salvation" were recognized to be "the good news of Health"
people would understand that the blessing is now to be enjoyed and would not
vaguely postpone happiness and heaven. It is interesting that the book wherein
the good news of Christ-healing is elucidated scientifically should not only
re-assert the knowledge of salvation from disease and sorrow and sin but be
named "Science and Health."

Suppose a doctrine is to be
propagated; how must it be done? If the understanding of it be found in the
thought of one man and he instruct others, what guarantee is there that these
others will be in agreement? Peter and Paul did not see eye to eye. This day
there are four hundred different sects in Christianity. Each one of these sects
professes to set forth the doctrine and dogma of Christ, and yet in none of
them is there found the power to live the life which Jesus lived, and yet we
are exhorted to have the same mind in us which was also in Christ Jesus. Would
not this mean an end not only to profanity, lust, murder, and intoxication of
every kind, but the elimination of the small and mean conduct whereby some
endeavor to make worthless the lives of their household and neighbors? Not every one is willing to give up the induced conditions
which have replaced the cheerfulness and loving heart of the child, and be
converted from selfishness, fear and meanness to faith, hope and love. To
accomplish this has been the aim of Christendom during the ages. In its history
we find that each sect or denomination has stood for
and emphasized some one prominent thought; that is, the messengers have seen
only one aspect or facet of a whole truth. If, instead of persons who go out as
preachers and become divergent in their views, it were possible to have a book,
as impersonal as a book on mathematics and provable in the same way, we should
expect to find men come to a final agreement. Is it not so with astronomers?
Those of different countries who may be unable to speak each other's tongue
will calculate with exactness the time and place of an eclipse or be found
together in some far part of the earth ready to observe a transit of Venus
concerning which their calculations are the same. Why should living be devoid of
exactness? Why should Christianity depend upon the guess-work of doctrine
rather than upon the certainties and the proofs of Science?

If it be so, as has been said,
that the unlearned may from the study of this book become wiser than ancient
philosophers, and the simple hearted behold and prove the things that are
hidden from students and doctors and teachers, do we not get a hint therefrom of the possibilities of the future? One of the
old prophets had a beautiful dream of the time coming when all should be
acquainted with God the least and the lowly as well as the highest in rank. If,
as we have seen, it is an impossibility for personal messengers to convey the
correct sense of an original teaching or doctrine, it is exactly possible for
all those who study a book and must prove it, each one in the same way to come
to an understanding of its truth, which will enable them to understand one
another and to love one another. When Love is thus universal it will be truly
said:

"The whole round
earth is every way

Bound by gold chains
about the feet of

God."

[Delivered Nov. 14, 1898, in St. Johnsbury,
Vermont, and published in The St. Johnsbury
Caledonian, Nov. 16, 1898. The account of the lecture is entitled “Christian
Science” and a similar account in another newspaper has the identical headline.
It is thus presumed that this was the title of the lecture.]